A few things have been sticking in my craw lately, but I waited until today to say much because yesterday was probably the last birthday my mom will ever celebrate. One of the big things was an e-mail I recieved about the city cemetary. It was both strange and unbelievable at the same time. It started out innocent enough about a drunk driver ruining over some headstones and the city possibly getting some restitution from the person. The unbelievable part involved laying a new water main on the section of Division Street that runs from Rockingham Road to River Drive. The claim is that Iowa-American Water crews were running into coffins under the road next to the cemetary. Some say part of the cemetary must have been closed and paved over for the street! It’s more what the e-mail doesn’t say about this that bothers me. How many caskets did they ‘run into’? Why didn’t they stop when they run into the first one? Who was in charge to say keep digging? That’s just too strange for me, even for this city.
Then this morning I open the paper, and the Barb Ickes column made me spit out my coffee again. For the story go to beating.txt. Gangs of drunken thugs going around beating people half to death is unacceptable. When found these gutless wonders should be charged with attempted murder. And what do you pro-development people have to say? I keep hearing ‘development chases away crime’. Where this happened is right smack in the middle of millions of dollars worth of development and it sure didn’t help this kid. It was even a well-lit alley next to a bank and a library.
Rumors have been flying also about troubles on the skybridge. This time with gangs of maurading juveniles. What is it with these banger wanna-bes who have to hassle people out trying to enjoy themselves? I know this is minor compared to the first two, but it still bugs me. These punks always pick on the easy targets. The elderly, the disabled, women, and people smaller than they are. And always in groups, never 1 on 1. There has to be a way of stopping this sort of behavior.
And lastly, I’ve noticed that the homeless, or drunk, or maybe lazy people like to sleep downtown in odd places. We have seen them in alleys, on benches, under semi trailers, and finally last night snuggled up to a parking meter. While they may not have a home to go to, there are enough shelters in our city. The guy we seen last night looked like a raging alcoholic who just got tired and decided to sleep where he was. But I don’t believe 3rd. Street is that place. That’s my rant for the weekend. I’m going to keep the shiny side up, and you do the same. Feel free to comment.
———————–Addendum—————————————
I’m adding the website for Dr. Jim Davis’s mayoral run to the blogroll. He is just getting the website up, but it looks pretty good. If you want to change the Mayor in the next election, give his site a peek. It’s at Doc for Mayor.
May 25, 2007 at 11:37 am
Thank God for Alderman Lynn bringing in the Guardian Angels, and thanks cruiser for your participation in all of this. Bladel runs a lose ship and won’t even interview the victim for days, so when the GAs get geared up, it may be the one thing that saves Davenport. It is hard to imagine a single alderman making that big of an impact on this town, but Lynn has done it. I hope he has more influence on the next Council.
May 25, 2007 at 12:54 pm
The bums love to camp out on the picnic tables west of the Isle of Capri, and also by the bandshell. You would think that the Security people from the Boat would move them along.
May 25, 2007 at 1:33 pm
[...] Imitates (TV) Art I first heard about the thugs beating people up behind Boozies from Cruiser. It seems that all the victims had in common was that they were from out of town [...]
May 25, 2007 at 5:35 pm
It is aweful that the gravesites of people have been disturbed, and even worse if at one time the City allowed a street to be paved over some of them. What happened to respecting the elderly and the dead?
A few years ago, the city cemetary was even poorly maintained. Part of the fence was falling down, and when they sporatically mowed, they wouldn’t trim around the headstones. At least whomever is mowing now is doing a much better job, and the fence along rockingham was put back into place.
May 25, 2007 at 6:15 pm
I think the city owes Alderman Lynn and Jeremy Boots a standing ovation. Mr. Boots is the man that did all the actual legwork on getting them here. And I’m sure everyone who volunteers for the Guardian Angels hope to make a difference. After all, it’s our city too.
People sleep all over downtown, and I can’t figure out why they don’t get run off either. They’ll be gone in time for the Bix Fest I’d bet.
The last poster hit the nail on the head. Hard to imagine how long those coffins have been there, but shouldn’t they be moved? If for no other reason than respect for our dead.
May 25, 2007 at 7:01 pm
To Keith Meyers: For the past few weeks, DavenportOne has been running many TV commercials promoting themselves. It is like the only reason they exist is so that they can morph into an even bigger endity. Do you know if the taxpayer money that council gives them each year is going to this expensive TV self promotion campaign?
May 25, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Alderman Meyer is having computer problems and asked me to post this reply-
Could you post this response. and D-1 never tells us how they spend the public funds. Never have. Never will. ( i need to get my computer fixed so I can post myself)
Please note: forwarded message attached
I disagree. This was a advertisement for a flooring company and for D-1. It is bad enough that D-1 gets $336,000 a year in tax money to promote their political agenda, let alone have the Fire Department help them with it. That is my take, but it certainly not on the top of my list of things that need changing. Next time it comes on I will just not look.
Please note: message attached
From: Frese, Mark
To:
Cc: ,
Subject: Inappropiate use.
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2007 4:05 PM
Keith,
I have review the commercial that you fell was inappropriate. I do not feel nor think it was inappropriate. I received a request to use a fire apparatus to participate in a commercial Davenport One was doing to promote the community. Without hesitation, I honored their request. I feel then and now they stayed well within the boundaries of what they requested. In no way was this an endorsement for Davenport One but for Davenport; promoting business growthI have always been of the mindset since I have worked for city government that we (Public and Private) all should be working together to promote our great community.
After your e-mail and to satisfy my curiosity about Davenport One I requested some information about their membership, their taxable evaluation, the demographics of their membership etc. The numbers they provided surprised me. Property values were not available but recognizing that commercial property is assessed at somewhere in the 90 percentile I suspect that contribute a sizeable amount of the revenue generated by taxes. Further, the makeup of their membership is mostly small business. Collectively their membership employs 36000 people.
I not advertising for Davenport One, however, we have developed a working relationship promoting a positive atmosphere and image for our community. The Fire Department will continue to work with Davenport One and any other group in the community to promote our mission of being a friendlier and safer community that welcomes visitors with open arms hoping they want to be part of our great community.
If this is wrong, please let me Know…
Fire Chief Mark Frese
Davenport Fire Department
331 Scott Street
Davenport, Iowa
563-326-7942
mtf@ci.davenport.ia.us
May 26, 2007 at 6:51 am
What kind of “computer problems” do you have when you can send e-mails back and forth and read blogs, but can’t post on the blog yourself?
May 26, 2007 at 7:20 am
If that employment figure of 36 thousand people that Mark Freese through out is correct, that means that over 1/3 of the people living in Davenport belong to DavenportOne. I wonder if Mark has his numbers confused with the 36 thousand homeless people living downtown.
May 26, 2007 at 8:27 am
As far as the homeless people o the riverfront go, casino security will do nothing about them as long as they are not on casino property. There is an invisible wall there and anything on the other side is not their business. I used to work there and that is how it is. They wont even patrol the skybridge and it was made for them.
The part about the city cemetery is not surprising, records were not that accurate and sometimes progress just needed to move faster than common decency would allow. There are a few (very few) private individuals working to record the names of those buried there, hopefully their work will enable the history of this place to not be forgotten again.
May 26, 2007 at 9:03 am
Right now I can’t copy and paste.
May 26, 2007 at 1:07 pm
We are very thankful that you send these email tidbits to Cruiser for him to put on the blog Alderman Meyer. It makes for some interesting reading. It is just amazing how some of these overpaid department heads think who work for the City of Davenport.
May 26, 2007 at 4:52 pm
I have a question concerning the contract between the IOC and the city of Davenport Alderman Meyer. Currently, it requires them to have an open and running hotel downtown. My question is – anyplace in the contract does it describe a penality for them failing to do this, such as a per day fine, or some other penality? If it does have such a clause, are they making regular payments on it? Thank You
May 26, 2007 at 9:00 pm
I only have a copy of the July 2005 IOC contract, which is the one that includes the new hotel on the riverfront. There is no such penalty in this one. Just the usual cure, default, mediation language. If there is such a penalty in the old contract my guess is it would have been inserted by tinker bell. Things didn’t start to change at City hall until the Seventh Inning Stretch did not make payments. This was when penalities first appeared in contract language. Thanks for asking. I will check with Legal about the old contract. The file drawer in the Council office does not have a copy.
May 27, 2007 at 11:03 am
Do you want to impose a penalty on the IOC for not having a hotel in operation and then ask them to make a substantial investment in Davenport? Seems like that would be biting the hand that feeds you and wouldn’t create an ideal business dealing climate between the IOC and the City.
May 27, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Yes – I`d like to soak them with a BIG penality. They are no different than anyone else, and should be business like, and keep contractual promises.
May 27, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Thank you alderman meyer for your quick response to the IOC question.
Charlie used to be an attorney, and I wonder why he didn`t catch the flaw in both the IOC contract, and the Baseball Stadium contract flaw with Kevin Kraus.